The art of survival (Maya Hart/joshaya)

Chapter 3

I woke up to a cold wind blowing me in my face. The winter was coming sooner than I thought at first. I checked my surroundings; in front of me were only trees and trees except for a little cottage. I would guess that it was about five kilometers away and looked like it was in pretty good shape. If I was lucky I could probably find some food in it. I climbed down from the tree and quickly checked my backpack. A bottle of water, some ammunition, the dried pineapples I took yesterday and a can of beans. Even though I could probably survive on this at least a few days I decided to take the chance with the cottage. Fighting growlers was hard enough. Making it without any food would probably be even worse.

I started my walk on an empty stomach. I have learned that it is better to save the food in the morning. In the morning you already have a lot of energy from the sleep. It is smarter to save the extra energy in the food until later. Shawn taught me that. After Auggie had died we had a rough winter, we didn't found that much food and we are, were, a big group. The food was minimal and the Matthews needed the food more than us. My mom, Shawn and I were used to go hungry and besides that it was hard to get any of the others to want to eat after Auggie died. They were still in shock over losing the youngest member of their family.

The leaves on the ground were in a beautiful orange and red color. The world felt cold and grey but at least the colors of the leaves changed the same way. I had thought about maybe find a group to settle down with but it didn't feel right. What if the people I joined had done something to my family? I couldn't ever be sure that they hadn't put a bullet in Riley's head or stabbed Josh in the chest. How could I trust anyone in a world that was dominated by anger, fear and lies?

It was a clear day, both in the sense of weather and growlers. I only met about seven of growlers in my run and I only had to put down two of them. The others didn't notice me. I rested against one of the big trees to get some rest. I wiped my warm forehead and took a little piece of pineapple. I didn't have enough water to drink it now. My plan was to find maybe a lake or anything similar to that and fill my bottles again but it looked kind of hopeless right now. The ground was dry and any small sources of water close by are probably dry dust by this time. It hasn't rained in weeks. It was probably just a ten minutes walk until I should be at the little house. I started walking, feeling a bit more refreshed than earlier.

The cottage was made out of wood that had been drawn with red paint. The paint had fallen off most of the walls in big flakes and was lying draped on the ground around the house. It looked untouched. I quickly changed the garden of any signs of humans. When I felt brave enough I carefully knocked on the rusty door. If any growlers were inside I should probably hear them by now but I didn't hear anything. I held my gun steady in front of me. I could easily fire it at any sign of danger. I took a long breath before quietly opening the door.

It was dark inside and it took some time for my eyes to adjust but when I walked in I was shocked. Everything that I could ever dream of needing was standing there untouched. Jars of jam, cans of beans and they even had dried fruit. Looks like today was my lucky day. I literally ran straight across the room to get a hold of the goodies. I was just about to open another can of beans when a voice interrupted me.

"Care to share that?"